Monday, 13 March 2017

I Know It's Spring

I know that Spring has arrived.

Shall I tell you how I know? Is it the blossom on the trees outside perhaps, or the tulips and hyacinths in my garden? Perhaps it's the jug of daffodils on the kitchen table, or the steadily increasing hours of daylight each day? Or is it the warmth of the sun and the washing drying outside on the line? No, it's none of those things. It's the dog hair. Molly knows it's spring and she is moulting and oh my goodness, it's everywhere. On the floors, sticking to any damp surface in the bathroom, on the carpets. I had smugly - and stupidly - assumed we had the brilliant luck of choosing a dog that didn't really shed a lot of hair. No, not in the spring it would appear. I sincerely hope this is just a phase as I am sweeping and vacuuming daily and wiping everything in sight down with a damp cloth and going slightly mad. Please tell me it will end!

Dog hair aside, it's all feeling rather lovely and springish out there at the moment. The weather today was glorious and I thoroughly enjoyed my morning walk in the woods with Molly. I came home and hung the washing on the line and sat and drank my coffee with the kitchen door open. I've been buying primulas for the pots on the front door step and have kept a few for the house. They are so pretty. No matter that the rest of the garden is a muddy, disgraceful mess, my front step looks good and so I feel like I'm winning at gardening.

Our weekend was nice. We took it easy and pottered around at home a lot, cooked nice food, watched films in the evening when the kids were in bed. I finally finished Angus's room and took some photos of it yesterday, when it was looking particularly tidy. Thank you all so much for your comments and enthusiasm for this decorating project - I've really enjoyed it and it's been lovely sharing it with you.

I'll leave you with some photos of Molly joyfully tearing around our back garden with her favourite toy hedgehog. It's wonderful to see the playful side of her personality emerge, to see her behaving more like a family pet and less like a confused wild animal.

Also - the state of our grass. I know, I know. Between the greyhound and the football it can no longer be called a lawn, just a patch of savaged earth. But I've got a happy dog and kids that love to be outside in the garden whatever the weather so I don't really care.

25 comments:

Yikes, poor hedgehog. Looks like a really fun toy though. I'm making a note about dog hair - can you get ones where the hair doesn't fall out? Who knows. The world of dog is still very much a mystery to me. I have a very long list of requirements now. Perhaps I should just stick with guinea pigs. Your grass looks fine to me. I have moss, daisies and some very vicious spiky things. But there are newts in my pond and I don't care. Have a good week Gillian. CJ xx

I thought the hedgehog was the end of a bristle broom at first glance. I don't like perfect lawns. I'm sure once you start mowing it will settle down. My lawn is visited almost nightly by badgers in the autumn and now it is the turn of the foxes. I just stamp it down and hope for the best. The best gardeners have tunnel vision which means we avert our eyes from the bits we don't like and just focus on the best bits. I had lunch in the garden today with bees and birds and newts and a brimstone butterfly and then went to my allotment where the deer are nibbling the buds on my fruit trees. We have a young doe who visits the plots with her twins who were born last year. They are completely unfazed by allotment folk so it is rather special. Talking of special things I think the new bedroom is looking fab, all those lovely details and the way you put them together is just sublime.

Oh, Molly looks magnificent in action....and I see she's getting bald thighs, a common thing with greyhounds. The moulting will stop, but you could brush her, which helps remove some of it. Our greyhound always moulted in the Spring, but it doesn't last.

What a sweetie with her toy hedgehog. Hamish is in mid moult too - it gets everywhere doesn't it. It was gorgeous here today too; I had lunch outside for the first time this year. I love your calendar. xx

I have a golden retriever and he moults all the time with mammoth moulting in the Spring. There are a few breeds which don't, including poodles but I have never had a dog who didn't. I've also never had a bowling green lawn or clean floors, but I have had many, many years of fun and love with my furry friends.

Now Gillian, your house is just so lovely with a warmth & welcome, that is hard to match. I loved seeing the pics of Molly playing in the garden, but even though we've no kids or dog, our so called lawn invariably looks like that, due to the magpies that come looking for worms and assorted bugs that live in the ground & grass. Molly should stop shedding as the days get warmer. She's just getting rid of her winter woollies (giggle). Have a good week & take care.

We've had a wonderful early spring weekend, too, with an explosion of small early flowers in people's gardens after some long-awaited rain on Thursday. I am in the middle of switching the contents of my wardrobe from the colder to the (hopefully!) warmer season, so, yes, it is spring!As for pet hair - it's part of the parcel of having a pet, I'm afraid. Until a few years ago, I never lived without a cat (or cats); first at home with my parents, then with my husband, then on my own. The cleaning up of cat hairs was a constant battle that simply could not be won. Now, much as I miss having a cat around, I am glad that I can leave the house without having to avoid getting covered in cat hair again with my business clothes on!

We've got three animals insisting it is Spring - the hoover is running full time! I am tempted to declare spring has arrived but it is not reliable yet, today is very cold and windy but sunny, just like on a bright winter's day. Love the photos of Meg with her favourite toy. Isn't it sweet how they get attached to one single toy? Jack loves his 'roadkill fox' (it is a flat long fox with squeaky bit in the tail and head. It is good for playing tug of war. Have a lovely week xx

Grass is overrated. I have a tiny patch of grass in the backyard and the rest is concrete or brick pavement. So much easier to deal with, just sweep it or in the worst case, use the leaf-blower on reverse. :) I love your spring photos, very pretty and bright.

Happy springtime! Like you, I feel that as long as the garden/pots immediately surrounding the front door are in order then all is well with the garden, when obviously (in our wilderness) it is certainly not. Oh well, there's all of spring to do the garden... Now that March has arrived I am ready for spring, wintertime candles stored for later in the year and bunches of daffodils brightening the table. Lovely

It must be so annoying having dog hair everywhere in the house but hopefully Molly will be done shedding soon. Also, it means it's finally springtime - yay! Love your pink tablecloth and looking forward to seeing photos of Angus' room. x

This made me laugh! (And then feel sympathetic- my reaction to the dog hair would be the same as yours). And the lawn? Well, isn't that what they're for? If it makes you feel any better, ours has chicken poo added to the mix...

Hey Gillian,Dog (and cat) hair is the bane of my life. But look at Molly careering in the garden! She's totally worth the daily vacuum. Your house is looking lovely as per. And Angus's room is, of course, a triumph. Did he choose his woodland theme himself? I love all the badgers too. Brilliant.Leanne xx

Great action photos of Molly! Happy dogs and happy kids - a little (or lot in my case) of dog hair or mud doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. (Life With The Crew - Blogger doesn't like me for some reason.)

Can you get a rubber broom from somewhere? I have one to clean up after the 2 dogs, works really well. I have been know to go over the lounge rug with a bathroom squeegee blade, when people are coming over. Sounds over kill, but both work a treat and it is silent, no noisy vacuum going all the time. And is a lot quicker than having to keep plugging things in and dragging it around. Just a thought.

We live with a black labrador. Anyone who knows and loves labradors will have adopted the same attitude as yours regarding the grass in your garden, but applied it much more forcefully to dog hair..... Otherwise, we would reach despairing point in a month. We have one of those vacuum-cleaners-on-a-stick sort of things to deal with the hairs that waft into corners and form large balls, thus saving ourselves a fortune in the over-priced, over-engineered vacuum bags that we follow on with. And the pet bedding gets washed in a zipped bag intended for horse kit, which saves filling the washing machine and at least three subsequent washes with hair too. Some days, we just grit our teeth and remind ourselves that our adorable Flossie is worth it. Our neighbour gave us a squat pink rubber brush to groom her with - intended for cats, it seems to work incredibly well - outdoors, of course, preferably far from the house, so that the clouds of loose hair don't just float back into the house, as we suspect they would! In fact, this has just given me an idea for a blog post - coping with unwaxable hair.....

She looks to be a very happy and well loved dog though. I guess you can forgive the state of the lawn and the hairs everywhere. It is wonderful to be finally enjoying the Spring weather. Washing drying on the line is one of my little pleasures. X